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Amber walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her torso and another wrapped around her head and heard the ringing of her phone. She looked at the caller ID and picked up immediately.
"I'm glad you called, Quinn. I got back in town an hour ago and planned to call you once I settled back in."
"Where have you been, and what have you been doing that you can't answer my calls?" Quinn asked.
"I stumbled onto something and think I am in need of a team. I couldn't answer or call you back because I think I may have been out of signal range. Besides, what has been so urgent that you have called me so many times?" Amber asked, waiting to drop the hammer with her discovery.
"There have been some deaths reported that are out of the ordinary. In the news feeds, they are not saying a lot but an inspector friend of my dad's called and told me the pathologist reports say they died of exhaustion. These are people who were not excessively active enough for such an occurrence, Amber. Have you not seen the news?" Quinn half gushed, not knowing if he was panicked or just wanted this to go away.
Usually, the things they hunted were not so dangerous, or they avoided killing sprees so they would not be discovered, but this had him on edge because the whole city was nervous, to the point no one went out at nightfall.
"Get everyone together and head to my place. You all can spend the night to be on the safe side. We can have dinner and discuss what I found," Amber answered him with a bit of a smirk in her voice.
Quinn was the youngest of the group of ten, but he knew as much as anyone. His father liked the unusual, and in his lifetime, had created a few encyclopedic volumes of the lore he researched.
Quinn got back on the phone and called Evelyn, told her to pack a bag and call Madison, Casey, and Jaime, have them pack a bag, and head to Amber's place. He then called Finley and told him to pack a bag, call Riley, Sawyer, and Jordan, have them pack a bag, and head to Amber's. Within two hours, everyone showed up at Amber's house.
They all showed up at the same time with questions. Amber heard them inside and closed the door.
"All questions will be answered in time, but for now, I want all of you to take a room in the south wing to put your stuff in then come down for dinner," Amber said calmly, grinning.
Quinn looked at her and couldn't help but grin back at her. "Why are you so happy?" he asked inquisitively.
She grabbed him and hugged him, "I'm glad to see you too," she said, eyeing him from head to toe. "Now go put your bag in your room, and we'll talk over dinner."
Once everyone was settled and dinner was served, everyone sat around the table waiting for Amber to come in from the kitchen. Once seated all the questions started again and she sat up straight and silent. Everyone went silent as well.
"I know you all have questions but before I get to what I learned I want to hear from each of you as to what you all have been up to in my absence."
In turn they each told amber what they had been doing and what was happening in town. It was finally Quinn's turn and when he was finished he told the group about the phone call from his dad's inspector friend.
"Let me ask you something Quinn, I know Uncle Nolan had some books he wrote for personal research. Have you come across anything in them that sounds like what you all have mentioned" Amber looked at him pointedly and waited for his response?
He tilted his head down looking left then right thinking before a grin spread over his face and Amber knew she had her answer.
'It's an energy vampire" Quinn stated with a surety he had not quite felt before.
"Very good, cousin. Now we have a starting point. Evelyn, go spin the globe. We are going on a trip" replied Amber grinning at everyone at the table.